Video Game /
Bubble Tanks

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Bubble Tanks is a series of online Flash games by Hero Interactive. In it, you use a tank made up of bubbles, while shooting enemies and collecting their bubbles they explode into when defeated. The more bubbles you collect, the bigger and stronger your tank becomes.

Bubble Tanks 1 and 2 have you controlling a Bubble Tank. There's also Bubble Tanks Tower Defence 1 and 2, which are Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and Bubble Tanks Arena, which allows you to build your own tanks, both your own and enemies'. Bubble Tanks 3 has the classic gameplay of the original two games plus the features from Bubble Tanks Arena.

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Bubble Tanks 1, 2, and 3 provide examples of:

Anti-Frustration Feature: In Bubble Tanks 2, if you get damaged too much in an area and hence lose a lot of experience points, the next new area you move into will have quite a high chance of containing harmless Pinata Enemies.

Awesome, but Impractical: The Apocalypse Cannon, which destroys the entire current bubblefield once it hits the edge. Unfortunately, it's got four huge flaws. First, it also destroys any bubbles you might have gotten from the field. Second, by the time the Painfully Slow Projectile finally hits the wall you'll probably have cleared the field already anyway, unless you point it backwards. Third, since it uses the same cooldown timer as all your other secondary weapons, it makes them all unusable too. Fourth, there are enemies with special devices made to neutralize Apocalypse Cannons and render your efforts moot.

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Boss in Mook Clothing: 2 has Spawn Carriers, Tri-Guardians, BFTs and especially the Destroyer, who is actually tougher than the game's boss.

Bribing Your Way to Victory: 3 has expansion packs which allow you to include more weaponry, such as railguns, lock-on missiles and such. You gotta buy it, though.

Bubble Gun: Almost everything you shoot, and everything the enemies shoot, are bubbles. (Lasers and shockwaves are some of the exceptions)

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Evolving Attack: Your Bubble Tank evolves to the next level once it collects a certain amount of bubbles. So do its attacks.

Although with 3, the system was altered slightly. Now, as the base size of the bubble increases, the number of usable (and more powerful guns) will increase respectively. Of course, achieving the next level will still increase the number of max GP (Gun Points) available - but the increase will be relative to the base size.

With 3, you can follow the evolutionary paths provided, use one of the player-made tanks, or just customize and create your own. Though, the number of guns you can use will be limited according to the base tank size.

Experience Points: When you defeat an enemy, the bubbles they are made out of get dispersed. By going near the bubbles or beating all the enemies in an area, you will collect them and your tank will grow. Collect enough and you will be able to advance to a stronger evolution path. Careful though- if you get hit by an enemy, you lose experience bubbles!

Fragile Speedster: The Ghost Sniper. Least amount of health of all the final evolutions, but it can move extremely quickly.

Frickin' Laser Beams: Averted with the Beam Cannon in Bubble Tanks 3. The attack is an instant hitscan move.

Game Over: Averted. If you get damaged at level one ad you have zero experience bubbles, you will get sent to the safest adjacent area. In short, you can't die.

Gatling Good: One of the weapons added to the first parts pack is a minigun.

Giant Mook: Several of them. Four of them serve as Bosses- The Spawn Carrier, Tri-Guardian, BFT and Destroyer.

Glass Cannon: The Ghost Sniper. Least amount of health of all the final evolutions, but the sniper move it uses hurts like a ton of bricks, does massive splash damage, AND pierces everything it hits.

The Goomba: All the enemy varieties you fight near your starting point are these- they cannot harm you in any way. You also tend to fight them in almost every bubble too.

Injured Vulnerability: Certain Mooks in 2 will lose weaponry and attacks when they take enough damage, making them far easier to deal with.

Interface Screw: Sticky Bullets make your tank slow, Jammer Bullets prevent you from firing, and Ink Bullets cover the screen in huge ink blotches that obscure everything. Thankfully, all three are temporary, but still irritating nonetheless.

"Instant Death" Radius: Death Field Tanks. Not exactly instant death, but they drain your bubble count rapidly if you so long as to touch their red radius.

Power-Up Magnet: You attract experience bubbles as you pass near them. If you defeat all enemies in an area, you collect all the remaining experience bubbles regardless of distance.

Sentry Gun: The 360 Pulse, 360 Spiral Gun and Rotating Machine Gun enemies are stationary turret enemies that will employ a Spread Shot or a spray of rapid fire as their attacks.

Smart Bomb: 3 has the Apocalypse Cannon, which nukes and kills every enemy in the bubble. However, it takes a mind-blowingly long time to recharge, and there are Mooks with a special device that can neutralize the attack.

Shows Damage: Enemies visibly lose bubbles as they take more damage. Some of them lose weapons as they take damage (as their weapons are made of bubbles too).

Spread Shot: The 3-way spread, the 5-way spread, and the Sticky burst are a regular burst, and the Starburst Cannon is an exploding shot.

Standard Status Effects: Any enemy tank getting hit by the Doomsday Infector will continuously lose health until they die, then explode into more Doomsday Infectors.

Unstable Equilibrium: Getting hit makes you lose experience, which weakens your tank, which makes it harder to kill enemies, which makes you more likely to get hit. Have fun Level Grinding!

Thankfully, the second game does give an Anti-Frustration Feature- if you get hit too often in a bubble, the next unexplored bubble that you go into will have a high chance of containing Pinata enemies.

The Virus: The Doomsday Infector, which sends a homing virus to infect enemies and slowly kill them. Once the infected enemy dies, 1-3 (2 in Bubble Tanks 3) new viruses will emerge, hell-bent on infecting more enemies.

You Are Already Dead: Anything infected by the Doomsday Infector will constantly lose HP until they die or if the player leaves the bubble.

All Your Powers Combined: You can merge 4 towers together to form a Mega Tower, which uses the attacks of the towers it was made up of, except souped up. And then there are Mega Mega towers, which are made of 4 Mega Towers.

You cannot change towers' targeting options in this game; thus, whether or not they attack the biggest threat is completely, and frustratingly, out of your control. This will often lead to enemies slipping right through the exit while towers attack enemies that are only halfway through the track.

Towers will ALWAYS attack full splitter carriers before picking off the little ones inside. This is great if you have Area Bursts or Splash towers, and ruinously bad if you don't.

Asteroids Monster: Splitting creeps. Cursed Creeps will become a ghost when they die.

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